Global Citizenship Education in Social Studies: Experiences of Turkish Teachers and Students in International Conflict and War

Abstract

Abstract. With the impact of the media, international conflicts are increasingly becoming a part of both everyday life and global citizenship education. The purpose of this research was to understand the perceptions of students and teachers about the incidents of international conflict and war, how teachers present these issues in social studies course, and the problems teachers encounter in this process. This study was carried out as a qualitative case study research. The data were collected by participant observations carried out in Social Studies lessons and by semi-structured interviews with the participating teachers and students. The data were analyzed using interpretive thematic analysis. The findings from this study revealed that the teachers in this study acted in protective, emotional, rational and tentative modes while teaching the issues of international conflict and war. The study also found that the teachers' behaviors while teaching controversial issues had an influence on the students' knowledge, skills and attitudes on the subject. In addition, the students' age and maturity level, gender, socio-economic and cultural level had an influence on learning about these issues. Finally, the findings indicated that the teachers who participated in this study did not have sufficient knowledge and experience in teaching controversial issues and international conflict and war.Keywords: Social studies, citizenship education, global citizenship, controversial issues, conflict and war, peace education Özet. Uluslararası çatışmalar medyanın etkisiyle gerek günlük yaşamın gerekse de küresel vatandaşlık eğitiminin bir parçası haline gelmeye başlamıştır. Bu araştırmanın amacı, uluslararası çatışma ve savaş olaylarını Türk öğretmen ve öğrencilerin *This paper was presented at

İlkokul 4. Sınıf Öğrenci ve Öğretmenlerinin Küresel Vatandaşlık Algıları

“…In one other study, Ersoy (2013) found that teachers did not have enough knowledge and experience regarding the transfer of global citizenship skills and related subjects to students and that teacher should take education on global citizenship. In addition, Çermik and colleagues (2016), in their study, class teachers were eager to give global citizenship education; that they did not find themselves efficient enough to give this education, though;…”

Examination of Social Studies Curriculum and Course Books in the Context of Global Citizenship

“…In this context, it can be said that the results of the two studies on peace are similar. In the study conducted by Ersoy [11], it was determined that social studies teachers do not have sufficient knowledge and experience in the teaching of international conflicts, war, and controversial subjects. In the study performed by Günel [41], it was determined that pre-service social studies teachers think that there is a global point-of-view on especially the subjects such as history and democracy and human rights in the social studies course and curriculum, however, they do not find themselves sufficient in being sensitive to diversity, being informed of different cultures and people and raising awareness of the reflections of the multiculturalism effects on the society.…”

“…In addition, in order to prepare for an increasingly pluralistic and interconnected world, globalization at all levels of education is seen as important, and it is also stated that teachers have played important role in preparing students for action and contribution in a global society [10]. Therefore, it is foreseen to provide global citizenship education at all grade levels and include it in curricula and classroom activities [11]. It is stated that the social studies course comes to the forefront for global citizenship education and the social studies course is one of the most effective courses for global citizenship [6,12,13,14,15], and the facts that the subject fits the nature of the course and aims at educating citizens who are active and open for communication and developing a multiple point-of-view are listed among the reasons for this [6].…”

Social Studies Courses Teachers' Views on Global Citizenship and Global Citizenship Education

“…Türkiye'de özellikle 2015 yılına kadar yapılan çalışmalar teorik ve uygulamaya dayalı olarak iki gruba ayrıldığında; makale ve bildiri çalışmalarından oluşan teorik araştırmaların (Açıkalın, 2010;İçen ve Akpınar, 2012;Kan, 2009a;Kan, 2009b;Özyurt, 2009;) özellikle Sosyal Bilgiler Eğitimi alanında gerçekleştirildiği görülmektedir. Uygulamaya dayalı araştırmalar ise makale ve bildiri çalışmaları (Ceylan, 2014;Çakmak, Bulut ve Taşkıran, 2015;Engin ve Sarsar, 2015;Ersoy, 2013;Gürdoğan-Bayır, Göz ve Bozkurt, 2014;Karaca ve Çoban, 2015;Kaya ve Kaya, 2012;Mutluer, 2013;Şahin ve Çermik, 2014;Tuncel ve Uğur, 2009) ile tez çalışmalarından (Çelikten, 2015;Çermik, 2015;Göl , 2013;Sarıoğlu, 2013;Uydaş, 2014) oluşmakla birlikte; Sınıf Öğretmenliği ve Sosyal Bilgiler Öğretmenliği başta olmak üzere farklı öğretmenlik eğitimi alanlarında gerçekleştirilmiştir (Çolak, 2015). Sonraki çalışmaların ise uygulamaya dayalı araştırmalara döndüğü; tezlerin (Balbağ, 2016;Durmuş, 2017) azalma eğilimine karşılık makale çalışmalarının (Balbağ ve Türkcan, 2017;Egüz, 2016;Günel ve Pehlivan, 2016;Oğurlu, Kaya, Ercan Yalman ve Ayvaz, 2015;Şahin, Şahin ve Göğebakan-Yıldız, 2016;Topkaya ve Coşkun, 2016) da özellikle öğretmen adayları üzerinde yoğunlaştığı görülmüştür.…”

“…Öğretmenlerin büyük çoğunluğunun küresel vatandaşlıkla ilgili bir kaynakla karşılaşmamaları; konu hakkında yeterli bilgi sahibi olmadıklarını, dolaylı bilgilerle soruları cevapladıklarını göstermektedir. Buna paralel olarak Ersoy (2013) küresel vatandaşlığa dair konuların ve becerilerin öğrencilere aktarılması noktasında Rapoport (2009) ise küresel vatandaşlık eğitiminin içeriği, yöntemi ve amacı hakkında öğretmenlerin yeterli düzeyde bilgi ve deneyime sahip olmadıkları sonucuna ulaşmışlardır. Buradan hareketle öğretmenlerin küresel vatandaşlar yetiştirmek için gerekli donanıma sahip olmasının (Kan, 2009b) ve küresel vatandaşlıkla ilgili bir eğitim almasının gerekliliği (Ceylan, 2014;Ersoy, 2013) ortaya çıkmaktadır.…”